Interesting Links for 13-01-2012

[andrewducker]

• George Lucas says Hollywood won't support black films‎
  (tags: racism movies money usa )
• Are smart people ugly?
  (tags: beauty intelligence )
• A brief history of facials (the NSFW kind)
  (tags: pornography sex )
• What would happen if they made it possible to pay to skip ads?
  (tags: advertising funny comic )
• Israel puts Godwin's Law on the books.
  (tags

Comments

[cartesiandaemon]

Israel puts Godwin's Law on the books.

Yeoch. On the one hand, I really don't like limiting freedom of speach, even for superficially good reasons (I don't think its inherently bad, but it's normally leads to laws drawn way too loosely.) On the other hand, I'd sort of hoped that committed religious jews might be the population on the planet LEAST prone to randomly comparing things to the holocaust, but no, that ultra-orthodox group dressed children as holocaust victims in Israel, to protect not being able to attack an eleven year old girl in the street. It was seriouosly about the least tactful thing I've ever seen. And Israel has been getting more and more worrying theocratic, so any push-back from the non-ultra-orthodox majority is maybe a good sign, even if it manifests itself in potentially problematic laws...

[andrewducker]

I think you'll also find that numerous people have compared the keeping of a people confined, under armed guard, in an area surrounded by large walls and razor wire, to the holocaust.

[cartesiandaemon]

Hm. Yeah, the law fails to have an exception for being right (or at least, if there was, it wasn't mentioned in the headline). Although there is some truth that comparising even genocidal things to the holocaust may be counterproductive, even if it is valid :(

[nancylebov]

That law is proposed legislation-- it isn't on the books.

[bart_calendar]

George Lucas is such a fucking douchebag. This story has been kicking around for about a week now and every time it comes up I have the same reaction

[andrewducker]

The words "George Lucas Production" at the start of a film have roughly the same effect on audiences today as "A M. Night Shyamalan Film" does.

Name a George Lucas Production that didn't make a staggering profit.

Edit: Found a list.

Last flop looks to be Radioland Murders, in 94. Everything recent has made hundreds of millions of dollars.

[bart_calendar]

Did you notice that all of the films that made a profit had the words "Star Wars" or "Indiana Jones" in the title?

If he was pitching "Star Wars Episode 7 - Lando Strikes Black" and set the entire story on Lando's planet with an all black cast he would have had financing in a second.

[cartesiandaemon]

I know very very little about it so maybe I shouldn't guess, but my WAG is that both are right: that Hollywood is inclined to massively overestimate the (admittedly already large) tendency of average viewers to play it "safe" and see films with white male lead, white female love interest, etc, etc. But also that this specific Lucas idea may not be much of a pull for wider audiences.

[octopoid_horror]

I'm more concerned at the moment with not being able to get refunds on mp3s as opposed to not being able to sell them second hand

[andrewducker]

Particularly when they make mistakes sometimes.

[octopoid_horror]

Well yes, that was my point :-D

Of course, I remember not being able to return computer games and music CDs once the seal was broken (since the assumption was that people would copy them and then return them) so I guess it is to be expected.

[octopoid_horror]

How are companies dealing with ad-skipping technology? For example, things like Tivo and the other products like that, and the prevalence of adblock etc?

Is it just by increasing product placement and persuading adblock to display ads that are totally ok because people really want to see ads if they're alright ones?

Of course, saying this, I don't know if people actually use Tivo and Sky+ to skip ads, or in fact to watch ads they particularly like. People often seem to enjoy adverts at the cinema, at least.

[andrewducker]

I'm not sure how they're dealing with them. Probably by hoping most people don't bother.

I'm actually very happy that Adblock recently added a setting that allows non-intrusive ads. Because I'm happy to have ads that are small and non-animated.

When I watch TV with ads in it (which is about twice a year at the moment) I fast-forward the ads. The 30-second-skip is very handy for this.

[octopoid_horror]

I would be happy to allow non-intrusive ads, if they were accurately targeted and not utterly irrelevant to me.

I have yet to see such ads anywhere online. The companies that supposedly have the most information about me are honestly the worst at targetting ads.

I also only just realised that you could use adblock to block the facebook plugin that pops up on random websites saying "oh hey, 5 of your friends liked this comically oversided sex toy/biased news story - do you want to like it and comment about it?"

[khbrown]

The MP3 article doesn't say anything about moving a file from one device to another, doing a cut and paste rather than a copy and paste. Or is that just taken to be another form of copying?

[andrewducker]

Yup. You're still placing a copy of the file on someone else's computer.